My First Years as a Frenchwoman, 1876-1879 eBook

of them occasionally with a child on their shoulders.
Frenchmen of all classes are good to children.
On a Sunday or fete day, when whole families are coming
in from a day at the Bois, one often sees a young
husband wheeling a baby-carriage, or carrying a baby
in his arms to let the poor mother have a rest.
It was curious at the end of the exposition to see
how quickly everything was removed (many things had
been sold); and in a few days the Champ de Mars took
again the same aspect it had at the beginning of the
month of May—­heavy carts and camions everywhere,
oceans of mud, lines of black holes where trees and
poles had been planted, and the same groups of small
shivering Southerners, all huddled together, wrapped
in wonderful cloaks and blankets, quite paralysed
with cold. I don’t know if the exposition
was a financial success—­I should think
probably not. A great deal of money came into
France (but the French spent enormously in their preparations)
but the moral effect was certainly good—­all
the world flocked to Paris. Cabs and river steamers
did a flourishing business, as did all the restaurants
and cafes in the suburbs. St. Cloud, Meudon, Versailles,
Robinson, were crowded every night with people who
were thirsting for air and food after long hot days
in the dust and struggles of the exposition.
We dined there once or twice, but it was certainly
neither pleasant nor comfortable—­even in
the most expensive restaurants. They were all
overcrowded, very bad service, badly lighted, and generally
bad food. There were various national repasts—­Russian,
Italian, etc.—­but I never participated
in any of those, except once at the American restaurant,
where I had a very good breakfast one morning, with
delicious waffles made by a negro cook. I was
rather glad when the exhibition was over. One
had a feeling that one ought to see as much as possible,
and there were some beautiful things, but it was most
fatiguing struggling through the crowd, and we invariably
lost the carriage and found ourselves at the wrong
entrance, and had to wait hours for a cab. Tiffany
had a great success with the French. Many of my
friends bought souvenirs of the exposition from him.
His work was very original, fanciful, and quite different
from the rather stiff, heavy, classic silver that
one sees in this country.

IX

M. WADDINGTON AS PRIME MINISTER

There had been a respite, a sort of armed truce, in
political circles as long as the exposition lasted,
but when the Chambers met again in November, it was
evident that things were not going smoothly. The
Republicans and Radicals were dissatisfied. Every
day there were speeches and insinuations against the
marshal and his government, and one felt that a crisis
was impending. There were not loaves and fishes
enough for the whole Radical party. If one listened
to them it would seem as if every prefet and every
general were conspiring against the Republic.